The technology is a joint venture by the Ministries of Oil and Energy where they have acquired the technical knowledge of the application of plasma to convert all types of medical, infectious and nuclear waste to electricity in specific power plant which burns these wastes as its fuel.
The project has also launched building of few such power plants in northern provinces near Caspian Sea in Kahrizak, Sari, Nowshahr, and Tonekabon, each power plant with a capacity of 3mW, and Rasht power plant with 5mW capacity.
In his meeting with Adnan Amin, the director-general of International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Hamid Chitchian had stated the generation of electricity using waste as Iran’s alternative to dispose of the waste especially in Caspian Sea provinces where waste management poses serious problems for the municipalities.
Currently, massive hydroelectric power stations account for only 15 per cent (10,600mW) of Iran’s total electricity production the majority of which has been built in southwest of the country.
In line with the grand policy to build waste-burning power plants, the Ministry of Energy has raised the price of each kW of electricity generated by this family of power plants up to 4400 IR Rials (US ₵13) to attract private sector investments.
Akbar Sha’banikia, the director of Iran Renewable Energy Organization (SUNA) Research Office detailed Iran’s new plans to generate electricity using waste. “Waste management is a real trouble for megacities and cities, which use different methods to eliminate the waste,” he added. “Two thermo-chemical and biochemical methods work; biochemical methods use landfills and digesters, which is the main method in Iran,” Sha’banikia said.
“Currently, two pilot landfill power plants in Mashhad and Shiraz have been built; along with biochemical methods, thermo-chemical method is also used where waste is burned by a reactor producing high-temperature heat,” he explained.
“Hi-tech methods are also at work to manage the waste; residual material incompatible with nature are eliminated by this method,” he added. “In plasma technology, nuclear and infectious wastes, chemical fertilizers, and polluted soil are cleaned; in addition, the method generates electricity with a 90-per cent productivity,” the official said.
Sha’banikia said that the country’s Renewable Energies Technology Development Headquarters had understood the challenges of waste accumulation; “Knowing that generation of electricity from waste is an opportunity, the Headquarters has launched, in collaboration with Research Institute of Petroleum Industry, a project to acquire indigenously the plasma reactor technology, with 15mW capacity Torches now unveiled as a result.
He also added that Iran was among few countries using the technology to generate electricity from municipality waste in the Middle East.
SH
MNA
END